Traffic in Women in War and Peace: Mapping Experiences in Southeast Europe

It is indicated that in the context of the Europeanization of legal mechanisms for Ukraine, the practice of the countries of Southeastern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia), which have already implemented or are in the process of European integration, while simultaneously transforming their own legal institutions in accordance with European standards, is of particular importance. The establishment and legal basis of national human rights institutions (hereinafter referred to as NHRIs) in the countries of Southern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) were studied. It was established that in Southern European countries, human rights institutions play a key role in the system of human rights protection, with human rights ombudsmen playing a special role. The activities of NHRIs in the countries of Southern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) and their involvement in the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions were analyzed. The compliance of human rights institutions in the countries of Southern Europe with the UN Paris Principles was reviewed. It was found that a number of reforms have been carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina – centralized registers, the institution of free legal aid, amendments to the law on extrajudicial proceedings have been introduced in terms of their compliance with international standards, however, there are still certain obstacles and shortcomings in both the content and application of regulatory acts that need to be eliminated in order to create an effective system for preventing and eliminating the phenomenon of statelessness. In Albania, a problem was identified with the publicity of the activities of the Ombudsman, in particular the last officially published report on the website for 2021. It was found that the main activities of the Ombudsman of Bulgaria as a national preventive mechanism are focused on places where persons are deprived of their liberty, or where persons are detained or placed as a result of the action or with the consent of a state authority. It was found that the European Commission report, in the section on fundamental rights, states that Montenegro has not yet introduced a comprehensive monitoring and data collection system to assess the level of implementation of human rights legislation, policies and strategies.

Trafficking in human beings is a worldwide phenomenon that in many cases takes life and liberty from the living, reaps considerable profits in the face of dire poverty and ignores barriers where borders exist. Within the OSCE region, this is particularly true in the case of South Eastern Europe, a region that is receiving increased attention and assistance in this regard. It is estimated that in 2000 more than 1,000 victims of trafficking were assisted in South Eastern Europe by a growing but still insufficiently co-ordinated network of governmental, nongovernmental and intergovernmental institutions. While a co-ordinated response to trafficking has only been developing very slowly, the international community significantly increased its efforts to address this problem in 2000. One important achievement was that a number of politically important documents were adopted, some of which are of a legally binding character. These documents outline the need to take more co-ordinated action in the fields of prevention, protection of trafficking victims and prosecution of perpetrators. Trafficking in human beings as a multifaceted problem touches on issues of human rights, inequality, discrimination, the rule of law, crime control, law enforcement, corruption, economic deprivation and migration affecting all states being either countries of origin, transit or destination. It is clearly an international problem that calls for a concerted response and multidisciplinary approaches. Countries in transition face tremendous political, social and economic challenges. High unemployment rates, gender inequality and scarce prospects for the future have a proportionately greater effect on women who then become easy targets for traffickers. The need for survival and the desire to improve one’s standard of living leads people to migrate for work. This all too often ends in the trafficking of human beings when people are dependent on others to facilitate their attainment of documents, to arrange their travel and to assist them in finding work abroad. Once in the hands of traffickers, human beings are treated as merchandise without any rights or dignity. Due to the hidden nature of this problem, the scale of the ‘trafficking business’ can not be measured in figures and official data can only show us the tip of the iceberg. Trafficking in human beings is frequently viewed only as a problem of illegal migration or prostitution. As a result, the victims of trafficking are often treated as criminals, while the traffickers most often go unpunished. Traffickers

Medical evacuations from former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Irregular migration, trafficking and smuggling in human beings represent major challenges for policy makers at national, European Union and international levels. In contrast to international and European developments, UK law and policy in this field are relatively underdeveloped. The UK seeks to come to grips with trafficking in human beings. This chapter examines past and present legislative responses to smuggling and trafficking in human beings in the UK and assesses the role of the courts in either establishing or weakening their legitimacy. If trafficking in human beings is, simply, seen as a form of 'immigration crime' to be tackled by law-enforcement measures, then not only human rights and gender dimensions are disregarded, but such an approach is likely to have limited chances of success. In discussing the British legislative framework, the chapter pays attention to the framing of smuggling and trafficking and its correlation with existing policies of migration control. Keywords: British legislative framework; European Union; human rights; immigration crime; smuggling; trafficking; UK law

This article examines historical efforts that have been made to address the issue of trafficking in women in South-East Asia, with a focus on regional approaches to the problem. In light of recent political developments in the subregion, the article will also assess what impact, if any, the introduction of a new ASEAN human rights body late in 2009 will have on the human rights of trafficked persons. The article argues that, in the absence of established regional mechanisms, national human rights institutions continue to remain key bodies for the promotion and protection of trafficked women in ASEAN.

Women's Rights, Human Rights: International Feminist PerspectivesJulie Peters and Andrea Wolper, eds. London/New York: Routledge, 1995; 372 pp.Reviewed by Helle - Mai Lenk Department of Adult Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Toronto, OntarioWomen's Rights, Human Rights is most recent and arguably most wide - ranging addition to growing body of literature on global movement for women's human rights.(f.1) interest has been most remarkable in last three years since 1993 UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna brought to international attention gender - based violations of human rights. In introduction to this anthology, Julie Peters and Andrea Wolper state purpose of their collection as twofold: to map directions movement for women's human rights is taking and to address ramifications of critical events and issues. Among latter, they single out rapes in former Yugoslavia and pressure for war crimes tribunal; trafficking of women and girls; female genital mutilation; and reproductive rights and coercive methods of population control.The 32 contributions by activists, journalists, lawyers and scholars from 21 countries (albeit for most part U.S. - educated or - based) have been organized under seven headings: Backgrounds, Regional Reports, Gendered Law, 'Public' and 'Private', Cultural Difference, Violence and Health, Development and Socio - Economy, and The Persecuted, Voiceless. However, in reading through essays, one finds that these categorizations necessarily overlap and certain common themes emerge, particularly those that pertain to situation of women in parts of world other than North America or Western Europe.The three essays in section entitled Cultural Difference address what editors identify as most critical issue facing human rights advocates: Does right to preserve and religious practices take precedence over human rights norms? (p. 5). role played by custom and in hindering advancement of women's rights is theme, however, that is broached by most contributors and permeates not only this volume but, I would argue, all aspects of movement for international women's human rights, movement which to certain extent owes its very existence to identification of West/non - West binary. In The Politics of Gender and Culture in International Human Rights Discourse, Arati Rao seems well aware of this fact. In what seems direct criticism of editors' introductory comments, she cautions against tendency to set up a false oppositional dichotomy in which geopolitical borders are erased and multitude of cultures are collapsed into falsely unified packages, one bearing stamp of human rights and other lacking it (p. 168). While not denying that defences of and religion have resulted in some of most egregious violations of women's rights, Rao points out that culture is series of constantly contested and negotiated social practices whose meanings are influenced by power and status of their interpreters and participants (p. 173).Ann E. Mayer might have benefitted from reading Rao's essay before embarking on her reflections on women's rights and what she terms the Eastern experience. Her article is replete with references to Middle Eastern Muslim women, Middle Eastern governments and Middle Eastern law as if national boundaries let alone racial and class divisions do not exist. When specific country is cited, as in case of Iran, author limits her references to books published in immediate post - revolutionary period of early 1980s.(f.2) While Mayer castigates those who in adopting cultural relativist position promote monolithic, static image of Eastern countries, she herself does little to dispel that notion.Finally, Maria Suarez Toro downplays importance of advances in women's rights made at international level maintaining that in Central America they have had little impact on women's everyday lives. …

Trafficking in persons, particularly trafficking in women for prostitution, is a troubling crime that violates human rights. This paper aims to delve deeper into the phenomenon of trafficking women for prostitution, the factors influencing this practice, and the efforts that have been made to address this problem. The research method is comprehensive and descriptive, involving literature studies, accurate case analysis, and interviews with various related parties. The results of this study are expected to provide a more complete picture of the problem of trafficking women for prostitution, as well as develop more effective recommendations in the fight against this cruel practice and protect vulnerable victims. Through deeper understanding, it is hoped that concrete action can be taken to end trafficking in persons and restore the dignity of victims caught in this cruel trap.

About the Contributors

Human trafficking permeates diverse institutions whose systematic operations are entwined into a multitude of activities. A combination of theories should provide an integrated explanation of the occurrence of human trafficking. Although many forms of trafficking exist, we focus primarily on trafficking of women for involuntary prostitution. Bruckett and Parent (2002:7) are of the opinion that apart from the description of the processes, practices, and routes of human trafficking there has been a lack of consistency regarding the theoretical framework for understanding human trafficking. Conventional theory and methods suggest that strategies to conduct research on forced migrants require multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, which at times may be divergent (Van Impe, 2000:124). The factors that enable human trafficking to occur vary and are interdependent and interconnected (Stop Violence Against Women (SVAW), 2008:1; Truong, 2001:34-35; Van Impe, 2000:117-118). It is possible that human traffickers observe trade in human beings as a profitable area to generate income, especially when considering that few human traffickers are arrested, prosecuted and sentenced for this crime. Ineffective criminal justice and community response to human trafficking strengthens the trafficking process, increases abuse of trafficked persons and allows human traffickers to generate financial proceeds from the crime. An integrated model to explain human trafficking appears to be a logical step towards an understanding of the crime. Current research explanations of the process of human trafficking are often informed by individual researchers’ own theoretical framework creating an impression of human trafficking as a single-dimensional type of crime. This paper will provide a broad integrated framework which considers the stages at which human trafficking for involuntary prostitution occurs. An integrated framework should help enhance the prevention and control strategies utilized to reduce human trafficking of women for involuntary prostitution.

SUMMARY The state reporting process is one of the important means through which human rights compliance is monitored. Pursuant to article 62 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and article 26(1) of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, state parties are required to provide a detailed report on the human rights situation in their respective countries to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. The state report should be submitted every two years, and should outline the steps, the progress made, and challenges encountered in realising the rights provided for in the African Women's Protocol. Unfortunately, only a handful ofstates have fulfilled this reporting obligation. Consequently, this article identifies and investigates barriers to fulfilling reporting obligations under the African Women's Protocol. Specifically, it interrogates why some African governments have failed to fulfil their reporting obligations after showing significant commitment by their ratification of this instrument. It is acknowledged that while there might be a myriad of barriers that could be advanced, the article identifies specific barriers to non-reporting on the African Women's Protocol. It concludes with some form of optimism, arguing that the difficulties to fulfilling the reporting obligations on the African Women's Protocol notwithstanding, African governments should be held accountable and made to see the value that could be derived from reporting on human rights compliance. The African Commission's need to take up proactive steps to facilitate increased seriousness to the reporting process itself, which would then encourage and compel state parties to begin to take their reporting obligations seriously and fulfil the obligations therein, is underscored. Finally, to overcome these barriers, recommendations are proffered to critical stakeholders such as the African Commission, African governments and civil society organisations. Key words: African Charter; African Women's Protocol; women's rights; state reporting; African Commission

Located on the Balkan peninsula in Southeastern Europe, with perfect situation bridging East and West, with more than 3/4 of the country mountainous, with about 40% of the land forested, with access to Adriatic and Ionian Seas, and proximity to Italy and Greece, Albania after the fall of Communist regime and opening of borders became a haven for different types of trafficking. Some of the reasons of the sudden outburst of Albanian criminality are the disruption of the Italian Mafia's activities providing opportunities for other ethnic based crime groups, the development of the sense of collective identity of Albanians, particularly Kosovars, required for these groups to mobilize their activities, fueled further by a perception of rejection abroad and isolation, and the process of democratization that began later in Albania, with its unfortunate by-product, an increasing level of crime. Trafficking of women and children became a major issue from the 1990s. In the period between 1997, after the breakdown of the pyramid schemes, and 2001, Albanian organized crime groups operating in Western Europe reached their peak. Nowadays, Albanian OC groups continue to be involved in trafficking and smuggling of human beings. Albania is not anymore an important transit or destination country, however, it remains an origin country of trafficking of young women for sexual exploitation.

In recent years the rights of women have received special attention in discourses dealing with human rights internationally. The notion of human rights as proclaimed by the UN Declaration of Human Rights (1948) implies that all human beings, irrespective of gender, class, race, religion, and culture, are equal. In practice, however, national laws in many countries as well as international human rights laws have androcentric world views. Human Rights of Women: National and Perspectives presents a feminist critique of this world view and constitutes a definitive source book of diverse experiences women face cross-culturally in their quest to claim rights. The 22 essays in this book were originally presented at the Women's Human Rights meetings held at the University of Toronto from August 31 to September 2, 1992, and reflect the various experiences of its contributors, who are mostly members of the legal profession from Africa, Asia, Australia, the Americas and Europe. The book is aimed at providing multiple perspectives of women's human rights, promoting legal strategies to protect women's rights and making international human rights laws more effective for women. In her introduction, editor Rebecca J. Cook identifies three feminist approaches -- liberal feminism, feminism, and radical feminism -- which recharacterize women's human rights and take into account specific socio-cultural contexts. Most of the essays, however, are slanted towards a liberal feminist approach. Cook also raises a number of critical issues in rights discourse, including various implications for women in the North and the South and for the public/private dichotomy. Like many contributors in the volume, Cook contends that it is the state that should provide effective protection against violation of women's human rights, irrespective of public/private contexts. The book is divided into five parts. Part I provides a broad overview of the content, based on the general issues addressed and consensus reached at the meetings. The essays in Part II entitled Challenges raise a number of questions that challenge rights discourse in many societies. For example, Radhika Coomaraswamy, citing a number of well publicized case studies in South Asia, raises a fundamental feminist issue -- how ethnic identity and cultural practices violate women's fundamental human rights, such as the right to live in dignity. In Part III, entitled International and Regional Approaches, Abdullahi An-Na'im points out that in some countries, the source of rights discourse is religion and women's organizations are working within the established religious framework. This leads to another key question: do feminists need to recognize epistemological, cultural, ethnic, and regional differences to deal with women's fundamental human rights? …

In recent years the rights of women have received special attention in discourses dealing with human rights internationally. The notion of human rights as proclaimed by the UN Declaration of Human Rights (1948) implies that all human beings, irrespective of gender, class, race, religion, and culture, are equal. In practice, however, national laws in many countries as well as international human rights laws have androcentric world views. Human Rights of Women: National and Perspectives presents a feminist critique of this world view and constitutes a definitive source book of diverse experiences women face cross-culturally in their quest to claim rights. The 22 essays in this book were originally presented at the Women's Human Rights meetings held at the University of Toronto from August 31 to September 2, 1992, and reflect the various experiences of its contributors, who are mostly members of the legal profession from Africa, Asia, Australia, the Americas and Europe. The book is aimed at providing multiple perspectives of women's human rights, promoting legal strategies to protect women's rights and making international human rights laws more effective for women. In her introduction, editor Rebecca J. Cook identifies three feminist approaches -- liberal feminism, feminism, and radical feminism -- which recharacterize women's human rights and take into account specific socio-cultural contexts. Most of the essays, however, are slanted towards a liberal feminist approach. Cook also raises a number of critical issues in rights discourse, including various implications for women in the North and the South and for the public/private dichotomy. Like many contributors in the volume, Cook contends that it is the state that should provide effective protection against violation of women's human rights, irrespective of public/private contexts. The book is divided into five parts. Part I provides a broad overview of the content, based on the general issues addressed and consensus reached at the meetings. The essays in Part II entitled Challenges raise a number of questions that challenge rights discourse in many societies. For example, Radhika Coomaraswamy, citing a number of well publicized case studies in South Asia, raises a fundamental feminist issue -- how ethnic identity and cultural practices violate women's fundamental human rights, such as the right to live in dignity. In Part III, entitled International and Regional Approaches, Abdullahi An-Na'im points out that in some countries, the source of rights discourse is religion and women's organizations are working within the established religious framework. This leads to another key question: do feminists need to recognize epistemological, cultural, ethnic, and regional differences to deal with women's fundamental human rights? …

The article is devoted to highlighting the activities of international and national non-governmental organizations for the protection of human rights defenders; defining their place and role in the existing international and national human rights systems. Attention is focused on the activities of such non- governmental human rights organizations as: International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), Observatory For Defenders, Amnesty International, Front Line Defenders (FLD), Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRDIC), etc. It is noted that there is a significant trend towards an increase in the number of non-governmental organisations on the African continent in response to numerous violations of the rights of human rights defenders. These organisations include: Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA), West African Human Rights Defenders Network (WAHRDN), AfricanDefenders (Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network), Network of Human Rights Defenders in Central Africa (REDHAC), Network of African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI), DefendDefenders (East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP)), SouthernDefenders (Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (SAHRDN)). It is concluded that the importance and activities of international and national non-governmental organizations are that they are, first of all, an integral part of the international universal and regional mechanisms for the protection of human rights, since human rights defenders are guaranteed the rights provided for in international human rights instruments, and therefore, in case of their violation, they have the right to apply to the supervisory bodies of these treaties (the Human Rights Committee, the European Court of Human Rights, the Committee against Torture, etc.; secondly, the above mentioned organizations contribute to the protection of the rights and freedoms of human rights defenders, taking into account the specifics of the region and national legislation; focus on respecting gender equality; make significant efforts to improve the existing legal framework for the protection of human rights defenders, expand the rights of this category of persons, taking into account the changing situation in the world with human rights and modern challenges.

The Transnational Illegal Market of Trafficking in Human Beings – Actors and Discourses: A Transatlantic Comparison